10 Things You Didn’t Know about Yamato’s Devil Fruit

One Piece has been running for a long time. As a result, it has introduced a lot of characters. Yamato can be considered one of the most notable characters introduced in the current Wano Country Arc. She is a formidable fighter. In considerable part, this is because she ate the Devil Fruit called the Dog-Dog Fruit, Model: Okuchi no Makami.

1. It Is a Zoan-Type Devil Fruit

Devil Fruits can be categorized as either Logia-type Devil Fruits, Zoan-type Devil Fruits, and Paramecia-type Devil Fruits. Both Logia-type Devil Fruits and Zoan-type Devil Fruits provide relatively predictable powers. The first provide the ability to create an element, the ability to create that element, and the ability to turn into that element. Meanwhile, the second provide the ability to turn into a particular animal. Chances are good that interested individuals can guess that Yamato’s Devil Fruit is a Zoan-type Devil Fruit based on its name.

2. It Is a Mythical Zoan-Type Devil Fruit

Some Zoan-type Devil Fruits can be put into sub-categories. In particular, it should be mentioned that Yamato’s Devil Fruit is a Mythical Zoan-type Devil Fruit, which are Devil Fruits that enable their users to transform into animals that feature in myths and legends. These are extremely rare, so much so that they are even rarer than Logia-type Devil Fruits. Moreover, they are extremely powerful, particularly since it is common for them to come with unusual powers. For example, Marco has shown the ability to create healing flames because he can transform into a phoenix. Similarly, Catarina Devon has shown the ability to shapeshift into a lookalike because she can transform into a nine-tailed fox.

3. It Belongs to a Series of Devil Fruits

It is common for Zoan-type Devil Fruits to belong to series. For instance, Yamato’s Devil Fruit belongs to the Dog-Dog Fruit series. However, it isn’t clear how Zoan-type Devil Fruits are organized into these series. To name an example, there is a Human-Human Fruit in the Human-Human Fruit series, which suggests that each series has a Devil Fruit that serves as a standard of comparison for everything else in the same series. If so, that raises the question of what would be considered the standard of comparison for the Dog-Dog Fruit series, seeing as how there is a Dog-Dog Fruit, Model: Dachshund.

In any case, these series don’t necessarily conform to the expectations of interested individuals. This can be seen in how the Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon is a Fish-Fish Fruit rather than, say, either a Dragon-Dragon Fruit or a Snake-Snake Fruit. Granted, the Dragon-Dragon Fruit series is reserved for dinosaurs and animals associated with dinosaurs because dinosaurs are called “fearful dragons” in Japanese. Still, one would think that East Asian dragons are closer to snakes than to fish.

4. It Allows For Three Different Forms

Generally speaking, a Zoan-type Devil Fruit user can take on three different forms. First, there is the form that they were born with, which means a human in most cases but can mean a wide range of other things as well. After all, there have been Devil Fruit users that started out as inanimate objects. Second, there is the animal associated with the Devil Fruit. Third, there is an in-between form that combines the two, which tends to be bipedal but isn’t guaranteed to be the case. Yamato’s Devil Fruit seems pretty typical in this regard because she has shown every single one of these three forms.

5. It Looks Like a Persimmon

Yamato’s Devil Fruit looked like a persimmon. For those who are unfamiliar, persimmon refers to the fruit of a number of species in the genus Diospyros. Specifically, Yamato’s Devil Fruit looked like the fruit of Diospyros kaki, which is the most cultivated of those species. These persimmons can look a lot like tomatoes, though they tend to be some shade of orange or yellow rather than red.

6. Its Animal Is a “Guardian Deity of Wano Country”

The animal associated with Yamato’s Devil Fruit has been called a “Guardian Deity of Wano Country.” It isn’t clear what this means. For instance, does this mean that there was an actual Okuchi no Makami in Wano Country at some point in the past or does this mean that a previous Devil Fruit user played an important role in Wano Country at some point in the past? Devil Fruits have remained very mysterious even though One Piece has been running for so long, so there are a lot of possibilities out there.

7. Its Animal Is Based On a Japanese Deity

In any case, it isn’t hard to see why the Okuchi no Makami is called a “Guardian Deity of Wano Country.” The name makes it very clear that Yamato’s Devil Fruit is based on a kami of some kind, particularly when one remembers that it is a Mythical Zoan-type Devil Fruit. Meanwhile, Wano Country stands out by being very clearly based on Japanese culture when the rest of the One Piece setting isn’t.

8. Its Animal Is Based On the Deification of the Japanese Wolf

Specifically, the Okuchi no Makami is a defication of the Japanese wolf, which was one of two subspecies of the gray wolf that could once be found on the Japanese archipelago. It is interesting in that it was a branch of the Pleistocene wolves, meaning that it might have been one of the closest wild relatives of the domestic dog. Unfortunately, Japanese wolves didn’t survive modernity, having been rendered extinct by a combination of rabies, canine distemper, and human hostility.

9. Its Animal Was Associated With Yamato Takeru

It should be mentioned that Japanese wolves were associated with the legendary Japanese figure named Yamato Takeru. Supposedly, he was once guided by a Japanese wolf, which is something that has been said about other people and other Japanese wolves as well. As for why this is important, well, Yamato is based on Yamato Takeru. On its own, her name doesn’t suggest this that much. Instead, it is the fact that she carries a kanabo called Takeru that makes it clear that she was based on Yamato Takeru.

10. It Provides Ice Powers

As mentioned earlier, Mythical Zoan-type Devil Fruits can provide other powers. In the case of Yamato’s Devil Fruit, it provides her with the ability to control the cold, which has proven to be very versatile. For example, she has been known to freeze her targets by breathing on them. Similarly, she has been known to make both armor and walls out of ice.

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